[liberationtech] Avaaz, is this for real?

[Andrew Lewis]

If it is 33K separate sources of funding it means that they need to be transparent even more then before. Being opaque at this time has the possibility to cast a large shadow of distrust upon the entire community in the future. While I empathize the need desire for security and confidentiality, but I think the solicitation of emergency funding adds the moral requirement to be as transparent as possible about what happened. Otherwise Avaaz is positioning itself to eventually become Chicken Little. 


As a practical question, does anyone know if this is Avaaz's first DDoS or Cybersecurity incident? 

-Andrew



On May 4, 2012, at 8:24 PM, Jillian C. York wrote:

> Unless those 33,000 individual donations were less than $1 each, I don't really see what you're getting at.
> 
> On Sat, May 5, 2012 at 2:15 AM, Shaun Wilde <s.wilde.libtech at gmail.com> wrote:
> Clarification. That's 33,000 individual donations. Not $33k. That should get them started.
> -sw
> 
> On Fri, May 4, 2012 at 6:52 PM, Dave Karpf <davekarpf at gmail.com> wrote:
> Agreed that that's what makes it importantly different. This wasn't the Comm department responding to reporters, it was an active fundraising ask.
> 
> I'm withholding judgment for the moment, but sincerely hope the Avaaz folks will be more open with the tech experts on this list. At the moment, this looks a LOT like a crass fundraising ploy. If so, I personally would lose a lot of respect for the org.
> 
> DK
> 
> Sent from my iPad
> 
> 
> 
> On May 4, 2012, at 6:36 PM, Okhin <okhin at okhin.fr> wrote:
> 
> > On Fri, 4 May 2012 15:48:35 -0400
> > Sahar Massachi <Sahar at brandeis.edu> wrote:
> >
> >> I'm a bit concerned about all the muttering about Avaaz's sensationalism.
> >>
> >> Please correct me if I'm misunderstanding something, but the following
> >> scenario seems pretty plausible to me:
> >>
> >> The Avaaz site comes under some sort of attack. The tech team at Avaaz
> >> gives a quick "idiots guide" to what's going on to their communications
> >> team, and then goes back to trying to deal with the problem. The
> >> communications team has a partially confused understanding of exactly
> >> what's going on, but tries to deal with the situation as best they can.
> >> When technically minded journalists want to talk to Avaaz, the
> >> communications staff doesn't want to bother their still-hard-at-work tech
> >> team, so they give unsatisfying, vague, and unhelpful replies to these
> >> journalists".
> >>
> >> Am I missing something?
> >>
> >
> > Yeah, they started a funding campaign to fight the attack and, while
> > the attack has stopped (according to their claim), it's still open and
> > their goal is 35k$ (and they're at 33k$)for what?
> > https://secure.avaaz.org/en/massive_attack_on_avaaz_a/?fp
> >
> > Next time I've got a spam bot raiding my corporate network, I'll ask this amount of money to my boss. Just to see he's face.
> >
> > Okhin
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > liberationtech mailing list
> > liberationtech at lists.stanford.edu
> >
> > Should you need to change your subscription options, please go to:
> >
> > https://mailman.stanford.edu/mailman/listinfo/liberationtech
> >
> > If you would like to receive a daily digest, click "yes" (once you click above) next to "would you like to receive list mail batched in a daily digest?"
> >
> > You will need the user name and password you receive from the list moderator in monthly reminders. You may ask for a reminder here: https://mailman.stanford.edu/mailman/listinfo/liberationtech
> >
> > Should you need immediate assistance, please contact the list moderator.
> >
> > Please don't forget to follow us on http://twitter.com/#!/Liberationtech
> _______________________________________________
> liberationtech mailing list
> liberationtech at lists.stanford.edu
> 
> Should you need to change your subscription options, please go to:
> 
> https://mailman.stanford.edu/mailman/listinfo/liberationtech
> 
> If you would like to receive a daily digest, click "yes" (once you click above) next to "would you like to receive list mail batched in a daily digest?"
> 
> You will need the user name and password you receive from the list moderator in monthly reminders. You may ask for a reminder here: https://mailman.stanford.edu/mailman/listinfo/liberationtech
> 
> Should you need immediate assistance, please contact the list moderator.
> 
> Please don't forget to follow us on http://twitter.com/#!/Liberationtech
> 
> _______________________________________________
> liberationtech mailing list
> liberationtech at lists.stanford.edu
> 
> Should you need to change your subscription options, please go to:
> 
> https://mailman.stanford.edu/mailman/listinfo/liberationtech
> 
> If you would like to receive a daily digest, click "yes" (once you click above) next to "would you like to receive list mail batched in a daily digest?"
> 
> You will need the user name and password you receive from the list moderator in monthly reminders. You may ask for a reminder here: https://mailman.stanford.edu/mailman/listinfo/liberationtech
> 
> Should you need immediate assistance, please contact the list moderator.
> 
> Please don't forget to follow us on http://twitter.com/#!/Liberationtech
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> +1-857-891-4244 | jilliancyork.com | @jilliancyork 
> 
> "We must not be afraid of dreaming the seemingly impossible if we want the seemingly impossible to become a reality" - Vaclav Havel
> 
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> liberationtech mailing list
> liberationtech at lists.stanford.edu
> 
> Should you need to change your subscription options, please go to:
> 
> https://mailman.stanford.edu/mailman/listinfo/liberationtech
> 
> If you would like to receive a daily digest, click "yes" (once you click above) next to "would you like to receive list mail batched in a daily digest?"
> 
> You will need the user name and password you receive from the list moderator in monthly reminders. You may ask for a reminder here: https://mailman.stanford.edu/mailman/listinfo/liberationtech
> 
> Should you need immediate assistance, please contact the list moderator.
> 
> Please don't forget to follow us on http://twitter.com/#!/Liberationtech

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.stanford.edu/pipermail/liberationtech/attachments/20120504/9625da2e/attachment.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: signature.asc
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 495 bytes
Desc: Message signed with OpenPGP using GPGMail
URL: <http://mailman.stanford.edu/pipermail/liberationtech/attachments/20120504/9625da2e/attachment.asc>